Reports

Published on June 8th, 2015 | by Crawdaunt

12

Sneaking Through Seattle: Washington 2nd Place Report

Hey there Nugget Bridge. My name’s Mark and I’ve been lurking in VGC for a few years now, but this year has been my first real go at the circuit, and today I get to share my Washington 2nd place story with everyone. Max Douglas (starmetroid) and I ran the same team in Washington (and Utah), and you can read his team report on our blog, VGC with Hats! While I’ve written a couple articles for Nugget Bridge already, I’ve never talked about my history as a player, so before I get to my report, a brief introduction:

My first tournament was technically Seattle Regionals in 2011 (I played one game and was knocked out of the event), but I kept VGC as a side-interest while playing TCG mainly up until late 2013. At Canadian Nationals, Randy Kwa (R Inanimate) gave me a team he had used in the international challenge, and I ended up playing the team in Oregon Regionals 2013 (after scrubbing up in TCG), and later took Top 8 in British Columbia Regionals using the team with some adjustments.

2014 was my first real competitive season…sorta. I only made it out to one Regionals (Oregon) ending with a  5-2 record. After that, life took over and while I had booked a ticket to Nats, I was later offered a chance to fly to Prague to present at a biology conference; this conference ended 3 days before US Nationals…in Europe. So my first Nationals ended up being a real “no Raichus given” experience, having worked 10+ hour days for the month before the event with no time for Pokemon. So while I’ve been playing with a competitive mindset for a couple years now, I think this is the first year I’ve really had the chance to prepare for and attend multiple events.

The Team

The team I used for Washington was a team that Max and I had been playing with since March. The team spawned out of an idea I had to use Scarfed Metagross; I wanted scarfed Metagross because it was a physical scarfer with decent bulk, good coverage, could out-speed Base 130s, and most importantly, it couldn’t be intimidated. I told Max about Scarf Metagross before heading home from work, and by the time I was home he had drafted a team that was very close to the team we ended up using. The team had three Jolly Pokemon with Rock Slide, so we affectionately referred to it as “Jolly Rocks.” Max won a couple Premier Challenges with Scarf Metagross and I played in one taking Top 8 before being knocked out by Cybertron’s recent Gothitelle team.

At that point, Metagross’ novelty was wearing off and we were both considering swapping it out for a Life Orb Aegislash (an idea Max had before that seemed to counter the Vancouver metagame), and my loss to the bulky psychic type confirmed that it was time to retire Metagross.

I’d been playing around with a HailRoom team and had really appreciated Abomasnow’s Ice Shard for picking up KOs against anything in the red, so I suggested Shadow Sneak over the more typical Wide Guard and this ended up being one of Aegislash’s strongest additions to the team; Shadow Sneak just gave the team some versatility in setting up end games. The other change this allowed us to make was to use Scarfed Politoed, which I’ve always thought to be the strongest Politoed set since anything with a Scarfed Ice Beam is pretty good. The last change we made was to drop Rock Slide from M-Salamence in favour of Hyper Voice; this idea we got from Randy Kwa. Both moves were meant to deal chip damage such that Double-Edge could take a KO later, but while Rock Slide let Salamence deal good damage to Thundurus-I, and Rock Slide is… well… Rock Slide, Hyper Voice was 100% accurate, couldn’t be Intimidated, and gave the team a far better option for dealing with Breloom/support.

With most of these adjustments I made Top 4 at the next Premier Challenge, and the night before heading off to Seattle I went online to play some battle spot and get some experience with the changes on the team. I also reached out to a couple players to give me some practice games, so a big thanks to Andy Himes (Amarillo) for letting me feel my way around these changes with him! One of the best parts about this team as a Swiss play was that it only used two moves with less than 100% accuracy: Rock Slide and Swagger. I think that consistency really helped throughout the day.

The final version of the team ended up being:

Politoed @ Choice Scarf
Ability: Drizzle
EVs: 4 HP /  252 SpA /  252 Spe
Timid Nature
– Scald
– Ice Beam
– Surf
– Rain Dance

The team started out with a Bold Politoed that used Helping Hand and Icy Wind, but the lack of speed really hurt Politoed’s ability to contribute to games. Scarfed Politoed allowed us to keep another naturally fast Pokemon on the team after dropping Metagross. Scald and Ice Beam are obviously useful, while Surf could have been anything and it probably would have been alright. But it’s nice to have the option of a Scarfed Surf. Rain Dance was to slow down sun teams, which finds its way into games somewhat often.

Ludicolo @ Assault Vest
Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 148 HP / 36 Def / 156 SpA / 4 SpD / 164 Spe
Modest Nature
– Scald
– Giga Drain
– Ice Beam
– Fake Out

Ludicolo is a Pokemon Max and I had played with a lot at the end of VGC 2014, as it could function well in and outside of rain. Nowadays, with M-Salamence and scarfed Landorus-T running around on top of Ludicolo’s natural enemy Kangaskhan, Ludicolo has to fear big hits from a lot of top guns. Still, it isn’t without its checks to these top threats, which means that it can still come to games with rain against these Pokemon without hesitation. But its ability to play outside of rain has diminished to some extent. This team is low on speed control options, and Ludicolo is effectively one of them, so it’s a good way to start the game off with some major pressure. Ludicolo’s EVs are meant to speed creep that tier of Pokemon that like to be in Tailwind, while also out-speeding most Rotom-W and Suicune such that Ludicolo could protect its partner from a potential Ice Beam or Will-o-Wisp. This Ludicolo spread also survives a Life Orb Bisharp’s Knock Off and its Special Attack hits an 11n number.

Salamence @ Salamencite
Ability: Intimidate
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Naive Nature
– Double-Edge
– Earthquake
– Hyper Voice
– Protect

This Salamence was ripped from Randy Kwa, so major props to him. M-Salamence’s Double-Edge is a force to be reckoned with, and while everyone is all uppity about their Salamence wrecking itself before it checks itself, I simply would not run a non-Dragon Dance set without Double-Edge and max physical attack investment. This team is hyper offensive, and its policy is “the best defence is a good offence.” I am confident that having Double-Edge has saved M-Salamence from getting KO’d loads of times; Double-Edge just facilitates knock outs. Running the mixed set with Hyper Voice has been great as it just gives the team an option for good damage against Intimidate, and a 100% accurate spread move.

Thundurus @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Prankster
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 4 SpA / 28 SpD / 68 Spe
Bold Nature
– Thunderbolt
– Swagger
– Taunt
– Thunder Wave

Thundurus is one of the best Pokemon in the game right now, and Prankster is one of the best abilities around. The team already had two Ice-type attacks, so Hidden Power Ice wasn’t a high priority. Having Swagger also gave Thundurus the option of Swaggering our own Terrakion, which let Terrakion OHKO opposing Thundurus-I no matter how physically bulky they were. Swagger is also just stupid good at being a move you can use with almost no repercussions. If Thundurus didn’t have something better to do that turn, it could just Swagger and they would have a 45% chance of not moving (accounting for accuracy) while dealing minor chip damage if they hit themselves. Paralysis is also, quite possibly, the most powerful status effect in the game. I’m sure many people would still use Thunder Wave even if Paralysis didn’t have the 25% chance to be fully paralyzed, which just emphasizes how good the move is.

Thundurus’ EV spread was meant to be bulky, and gets 3HKOd by Terrakion’s Rock Slide after Sitrus; plus it hits an 11n number (I’m a sucker for efficiency). The speed was to out-speed the “I’m scared of Breloom” tier, speed creep other bulky Thundurus so I could Taunt them, and had the side-benefit of being faster than Smeargle should I want to Thunderbolt it for the turn. The team really didn’t care about Heatran and this Thundurus couldn’t touch Landorus-T so I stopped my speed creeping nonsense there; Max settled at a speed stat of 137.

Terrakion @ Lum Berry
Ability: Justified
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
– Close Combat
– Rock Slide
– Quick Guard
– Protect

Terrakion is pretty standard, but it’s the team’s best way of clearing Kangaskhan and also Ferrothorn which can otherwise cause problems. Quick Guard was a move that almost never got used, but I did almost win game one of the finals with it so it put in work that day. That said, depending on what metagame this Terrakion was playing in, it has also used Double Kick or Stone Edge in that slot. I don’t think it really matters that much. The other thing that gets played around with is Focus Sash vs. Lum Berry, but at this point I don’t think I could drop Lum Berry as it offers too good a buffer to unfortunate hax, and to those players who fearlessly Thunder Wave Terrakion for some reason.

Aegislash @ Life Orb
Ability: Stance Change
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpA
Quiet Nature
– Shadow Ball
– Flash Cannon
– Shadow Sneak
– King’s Shield

Aegislash became the star of the team despite being the last Pokemon added. Life Orb Aegislash’s Shadow Ball hits almost as hard as Choice Specs Hydreigon’s Dark Pulse, but without being locked into the move afterwards. The unfortunate part of this damage calculation is that Aegislash just barely comes up short on the OHKO on your standard Sylveon, which means Sylveon needed chip damage before Flash Cannon could KO; chip damage… or a Shadow Sneak! Any time you can use a priority move that does around 20% neutral damage to anything, it’s going to put in work. Shadow Sneak was easily the neatest move on the team and I think Max was surprised at how useful it was, having been a Wide Guard purist for so long.

The Tournament

I couldn’t save my battle videos obviously, but as a result I don’t know what I led since I don’t keep track of that in my notes (I should change that…), but I’ll go over the matches I can remember with quick thoughts and reflections.

Round 1 – Jimmy P.

There’s not much to say about this game. Nice guy, but he ended up dropping pretty early in the day.

Win: (1-0)

Round 2 – Sam H. (DrFidget)

Sam had an Aron on the team, which honestly scared me a lot because I didn’t have any multi-hit moves. I led with Politoed/Ludicolo this game despite expecting him to switch in Tyranitar to win the weather war. I was planning to potentially Rain Dance on turn 1 to beat the incoming Sand, but his leads of Azumarill and Zapdos made me feel safe in just doubling into the TTar switch-in from the Zapdos slot with Scalds for a chance at burn and major damage. This play worked out pretty well, and I doubled into it again next turn for the KO. That turn, Sam missed a Play Rough on my Ludicolo which would’ve chunked me good; but I also critted his TTar with Scald not quite KOing, which meant my Ludicolo couldn’t recover as much off of Giga Drain by doubling in, later forcing me to switch Ludicolo out to preserve it from being KOd by Sand damage. Definitely a trade I’ll take any day, but an interesting turn of events nonetheless. Had he hit the Play Rough, I’d have had to play quite differently, but that miss let me close the game very comfortably.

Win (2-0)

Round 3 – Hajime Uyesugi (Aralevent)

I led Thundurus/Politoed and used Rain Dance and Taunt on the first turn to shut down his Sableye and leave his Charizard stuck in Solarbeam. After this, the game was very manageable on my end, as Salamence’s Hyper Voice cleanly dealt with Breloom and I had Choice Scarf Politoed in back for his Garchomp.

Win (3-0)

Round 4 – Rapha “bagel bagel” Bagara (Rapha)

Oh man… Rapha is a fellow VGCwithHats‘er and friend from Vancouver, and we’ve played far too many times now in Premier Challenges. I don’t think Rapha’s actually beaten me in swiss, but I lost to him in Top Cut the last time we played a top cut match. This game, I think I led Thundurus/Ludicolo to his Togekiss/Hydreigon, and tried to call Rapha Draco Meteor’ing my Thundurus by switching in Aegislash. This was a pretty risky move on my part, and it didn’t work out as Rapha went for the safe play of just Dark Pulsing that slot, which made a lot of sense. So I started the game down 3-4, but somehow was able to put pressure on him with Thunder Wave (and Swagger). At one point, he ended up fully paralyzed which was what I needed to halt his momentum and steal the game back. The raw power of Salamence’s Double-Edge let me pick up quick KOs in this game that made sure I kept the momentum I’d gained back.

Win (4-0)

Round 5 – Harrison Saylor (Crow)

I really liked the look of this matchup from team preview, but was just toying with the idea of bringing Politoed or Ludicolo as my 4th Pokemon in back. As time ran out, with one second left my brain was emphatically saying “Politoed!” and my hand said “Ludicolo!,” and I immediately divorced my hand and let my brain take custody of the stylus; my hand could see it in between turns and on weekends. I had the full intention of bringing Politoed and really regretted this brain fart and having Ludicolo in this game. Had I had Politoed, the game played out in such a way that I’d have won with Politoed as my last Pokemon, and there wasn’t anything revealed until Politoed would have closed the game. But Ludicolo was brought, and was KOd from being too slow, and I took my first loss of the day. I did get to find out about Draco Meteor on his M-Salemence and Rocky Helmet on his Cresselia though, so that was valuable information for the future.

Loss (4-1)

Round 6 – Paul Barrera

I led with Ludicolo/Aegislash, to his Ludicolo/Zapdos. Feeling extremely confident my Ludicolo was faster than his, I Faked Out his Ludicolo and Shadow Balled his Zapdos on turn 1, getting a Special Defense drop in the process while he paralyzed Ludicolo. He left his Zapdos in allowing me to Ice Beam KO it on turn 2 as he paralyzed Aegislash, which gave me a strong control of the game from there. I was lucky this game in not getting fully paralyzed so much that I didn’t lose the lead from there. I was also able to spread some paralysis of my own to mitigate that issue and regain some speed control.

Win (5-1)

Round 7 – Marc Dennis

Marc had sent Rapha “bagel bagel” down to a record of 4-2 after round 6, so I was pretty cautious of his team. Jolteon, Greninja and Heracross were uncommon choices, and Greninja was something I really didn’t like seeing as it could out-speed and KO my Salamence while also threatening big damage on Ludicolo through Gunk Shot. I don’t remember what I led, but at some point in the game, I made a yamsy prediction and went for a Hyper Voice with Salamence to set Greninja up for the KO later, and this let me know I was actually faster than Greninja! After that, the game was nowhere near as scary and I was able to close it out handily, though his Jolteon got a Thunder in on my Politoed for KO which was pretty neat.

Win (6-1)

Round 8 – Max Douglas (starmetroid)

We were both at 6-1 and using the exact same team, but I knew I had great resistance (~70%), while Max did not. That said, I didn’t want to scoop to Max for us to both make cut, in the unlikely event that I bubbled out as a result; only ~7 of 27 X-2s were projected to make Top 16 (it ended up being 8). While I was planning to scoop, we played a game out before committing to the final decision which would make me feel a lot better about the situation. The mirror match played out as mirror-matchy as you could have it (though we brought different Pokemon). The last two on our fields were Salamence and Ludicolo, with both Ludicolo paralyzed and every Pokemon basically fresh. We both Double-Edged each other’s Ludicolos resulting in a M-Salamence speed tie to finish the game. Then we both scrubbed up and went for a Double-Edge on each other, which meant whoever moved second and took recoil second would win. I say scrubbed up, because later Max realized we both should have Hyper Voiced; I completely forgot about it being at single target power at that point. While Hyper Voice wouldn’t outright KO the opponent’s Salamence, it also would ensure our own M-Salamence survived the turn. Either way, Max won fair and square and I felt much better about the result that way, though was pretty nervous about the standings.

Loss (6-2)

Post-Swiss

I was pretty antsy waiting for confirmation that my resistance remained strong, as of the six opponents I could track down at the end of Round 8, one had dropped previously and the others went 2W-3L, which was a net drop in my resistance. My last opponent had also lost, but it turned out I was alright and made it into cut as the 13th seed. With that huge relief off my chest, we did the hack check and the British Columbia crew left to follow friends around aimlessly until later splitting off for pizza.

That night, I ended up being out until 2:30 AM trying to find a hotel room for a couple TCG friends who were minors and couldn’t book their own room; a last minute cancellation left the group in a dicey situation. Our hotel wouldn’t allow them to stay in our room for fire safety reasons, and everywhere around the Travelodge was booked up, but they eventually found a floor to sleep on (seriously, thanks Sorina!) and I got to pass out as well. Not an ideal way to spend the night before your Top Cut matches, but Max and I have had good results after staying up late, so maybe it was a bonus!

After a wee few hours of sleep, we woke up to face the day and our opponents in Top 16.

Top Cut

Top 16 – Gary Qian

Gary was dressed as “Red” which put some pressure on me to don the Crawdaunt hat… but I withheld as that thing is just too warm despite its awesomeness! Anyways, Gary had a Smeargle and Salamence, both of which were dealt with adequately by Thundurus and Politoed, letting me take the first game quite handily. I was also able to launch an unnecessary Thunder Wave at his Scizor to confirm its item as Lum Berry. In the second game, he brought Mega-Venusaur which was a good adjustment and it was really close, but he hadn’t realized I was on my last two Pokemon and slipped up to let me win the game without a need for game 3.

Win [2-0]

Top 8 – Gabby Snyder (JTK)

After forgoing the Crawdaunt hat in Top 16, Gabby sat down across from me with a Bidoof and Jirachi plush. Two things went through my mind: 1) Someone actually owns a Bidoof plush? 2) Crap… I think I have to don the Daunt now.

I knew Gabby was a strong player and I was in for a tough series, and honestly this was probably the best Top Cut series I played that day; it’s a shame we couldn’t get on stream so I could remember more about them! I was wary about her team using Encore Politoed + Disable Kingdra to shut me down, and didn’t find out until Game 3 that this wasn’t a problem as Kingdra revealed its 4th move. I remember taking Game 1 with a prediction on her switch in for a clutch advantage. Game 2, I found out about her Lum Berry on Kingdra, which got a Substitute up without being paralyzed as a result, and that strong position let her close out game 2. In game 3, I revealed Shadow Sneak on Aegislash to remove Kingdra’s Subsitute at an ideal point in the game, and was able to hit through an accuracy drop on Ludicolo to put myself in a winning position. At the end of this game, I was able to switch my Ludicolo out to reset its accuracy for the guaranteed win against her soon-to-be lone Politoed.

Win [2-1]

Top 4 – Harrison Saylor (Crow)

While I was itching for a rematch with Harrison after losing in Swiss due to my bizarre team preview internal conflict, he had just taken out Max who was using the same team as me; this left me a bit nervous that he’d have counter strategies prepared. In game 1, my Thundurus was frozen early in the game, and I wasn’t very confident in my odds from there on out. I ended that turn with a frozen Thundurus and an Aegislash in blade forme against his M-Salamence and Cresselia. I knew his M-Salamence had Return and Draco Meteor, and my thought process was completely distracted by this fact not even considering Earthquake (which is pretty embarrassing because I run Earthquake on my own Salamence). Whatever the reason, I actually forgot about Earthquake, and had I remembered, I likely would have King’s Shielded. But then again I may have decided I just needed to predict him to expect my King’s Shield in order to come back from the freeze. I guess I’ll never know! Either way… losing Aegislash early and having Thundurus frozen gave Harrison a 4-0 victory.

Game two wasn’t the cleanest affair. I called his Salamence switch out on turn 2, and ended up shutting down Sylveon with Swagger and Thunder Wave, and got some luck of my own as it failed to attack three turns in a row. I knew Life Orb Aegislash or my Mega Salamence would be able to take it out after it took chip damage, so I didn’t want to Thunderbolt into that slot and just wanted to prevent Sylveon from attacking as much as possible, not treating it as a priority. I had Politoed in the back for his Mega Salamence or Rhyperior, and intended for my Salamence switch in to let me save Thundurus since Politoed could take out his Salamence at any point, but I never had to use Politoed thanks to Sylveon failing to attack, which let me play some mind games for game 3.

Game 3, after not revealing Politoed, and after Aegislash put in as much work as it did, I figured he would bring Heatran and I aggressively led with Politoed to shut down this adjustment. This worked perfectly and I took game 3 handily as Politoed neutered Heatran and Thundurus was able to Taunt Cresselia, giving me easy outs since Trick Room never went up.

Win [2-1]

Finals – Riley Factura (gengarb0i)

We had an hour lunch break and Riley had just played on stream against my friend Wesley, and I had played on stream prior to that, so I knew a lot about his team entering the match and I expect he knew a lot about mine. I knew his Sylveon was bulky, and I had actually just lost a best-of-three in the National Collegiate Pokemon Association after being surprised by a Bold Sylveon that survived my Mega Salamence’s Double-Edge. At lunch with Max, we pined over the best way to lead in this match, and it was a pretty depressing experience. There really weren’t any two Pokemon on my team that gave me options against every good lead combo he could bring.

In the end, I figured out a decent lead combo in Salamence and Aegislash that gave me options against what I expected him to bring first. This first game, I got a bit greedy expecting a Thunder Wave so I used Hyper Voice and went to Shadow ball the Thundurus while KO’ing Sylveon, and he was able to take Aegislash a bit too easily as a result. Politoed ended up paraflinched, which is a strategy I employed in building my team originally, so it really showed its worth here. In the middle, my Terrakion missed a Rock Slide onto his Thundurus which would end up hurting later, and at the end my Terrakion missed a Rock Slide against his Kangaskhan that would’ve sealed the game for me; though I was able to attack through a paralysis that turn, so the odds of me winning off my Double-Edge + Rock Slide play at that point were actually only 60.8%. Still, it was a disappointing loss since I felt I had a good win condition and just barely missed out on it through Lemony Snickett’s series of unfortunate events.

In game 2, I went with a lead of Aegislash/Terrakion to face Sylveon/Thundurus, but this didn’t really work out for me as he ended up leading with Landorus-T which left me at a disadvantage. To compound that, I later failed to switch Salamence out to Terrakion to take a potential Thunder Wave, which would have worked out really well as Riley Hidden Power Iced that slot. I guess I was greedy and wanted to get a Hyper Voice + Flash Cannon KO on the Landorus-T or Kangaskhan switch-in since either would cause me problems. I also think that was Riley’s first use of Hidden Power Ice, so I think it caught me by surprise a bit. In the end, I failed to preserve M-Salamence to deal with Landorus-T, and lost my only Earthquake immunity on the team. I also didn’t bring Terrakion in afterward which was probably my best chance at winning after losing M-Salamence; Riley’s Landorus-T was able to close out the game handily. Riley took game 2 with commanding play, and I was beaten!

Loss [0-2]

Riley’s bulky Sylveon really tied my hands this series, as I couldn’t just OHKO it using Salamence (nor with Aegislash). Riley made a really great call to build his Sylveon the way he did, so major props to him and his set. I don’t expect this rain team will be a strong play entering Nationals as it is, so I’ll have to think of something to do about that, or more likely just find a new team for Nationals.

Conclusion

And there you have it! After two days, many great matches, some boneheaded mistakes, a bit of luck, and the ideal ~3 hours of sleep needed for a successful run in Top Cut, I walked away with an extra 100 Championship Points, securing my $750 travel stipend to US Nationals. The next week, Max and I took the team to Utah where I made Top 8 in the 98-person Premier Challenge the day before, and Max took 2nd place in the actual event. This team has been really good to us over the last couple months, earning us a total of 386 Championships Points worth of finishes, so it’s nice to be able to highlight it since it’s likely played its last big event.

Thanks for reading! Cheers,

Crawdaunt out.

About the Author

Crawdaunt started playing VGC off-and-on in 2011, but only really jumped into competitive play starting in 2014. He founded and runs the University of Victoria Pokemon Club and weekly league, and hosts Premier Challenges in Victoria BC. He also writes for the blog http://www.vgcwithhats.com/

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